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1. IOSR Journal of VLSI and Signal Processing (IOSR-JVSP)
ISSN: 2319 – 4200, ISBN No. : 2319 – 4197 Volume 1, Issue 4 (Nov. - Dec. 2012), PP 42-46
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www.iosrjournals.org 42 | Page
A Low Power, 8-Bit, 5MS/s Digital to Analog Converter for
Successive Approximation ADC
Amandeep Kaur,
Thapar University,Patiala, India,
Abstract: In this paper, a simple switched capacitor Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) is presented that
exhibits monotonicity and occupies small area. The proposed DAC starts its conversion from the MSB instead
of the traditional approach of starting from LSB making it suitable for use in cyclic or successive approximation
analog-to-digital converters. The reference voltage is sampled once and appropriate charge is transferred to the
output capacitor of the DAC. Some issues relevant to the design and their possible solutions are presented. The
DAC is designed for a resolution of 8-bit. Sampling speed is chosen to be 5MS/s and the main emphasis is on
low power. This DAC consumes power in the order of microwatt (𝜇𝑊), compare with previous DACs which
consumes more power, generally in the order of milliwatts. The output 8-bits along with power dissipation of
493.8 𝜇W has been achieved.
Index Terms—DAC, Folded Cascode, SAR ADC, Transmission gates.
I. Introduction
Most of real world signals are continuous in time and value called analog signals. But, compared to
analog signals, digital signals have many advantages. So, there is a flow to transfer signal processing from the
analog domain to the digital one like digital signal processing, which not only allows for a higher level of
accuracy but also provides savings in power consumption and silicon area. It increases robustness in the circuit,
speeds up the design process, brings flexibility and programmability, and increases the number of chances for
design reuse. Because of above benefits of working in digital domain, there is a need to convert the analog real
world signals to digital discrete-time and discrete-value signals. DSP processors process digital signals, hence
analog to digital converters (ADC) are required to convert the analog signals to digital signals. After processing
of signals, the output needs to be converted back to its analog form, hence DAC is used. Here DAC is designed
for Successive Approximation ADC which may be further used for bio-medical and video applications.
II. Background
Digital to analog converters operating at moderate speeds and their moderate resolutions are used in
many applications. These DACs often consume low power. The classical DAC using two capacitors was
proposed in [2] and is shown in Figure 1. The DAC starts its conversion from the LSB. This DAC can be used
as a sub-DAC in an ADC, but the ADC will then required to convert the input completely before the LSB
becomes available at DAC for processing. This usually slows down the operation of the ADC considerably.
Figure 1: Conventional method of DAC implementation
So, a new method of designing DAC is proposed as shown in Figure 2. This low power 5MS/s switched
capacitor DAC has been designed in 0.18μm CMOS n-well process. The resolution of DAC is taken to be 8-bit.
Its practical implementation is shown in Figure 3.
III. Operation Of Dac
C1 and C2 are chosen to have the same size. φ1 and φ2 are non-overlapping clocks and get enabled only when
φstart is low. The conversion process begins with φstart going high. This causes the capacitor C1 to get charged

2. A Low Power, 8-Bit, 5MS/s Digital to Analog Converter for Successive Approximation ADC
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to the reference voltage,Vref . Once φstart goes low, φ1 and φ2 get enabled. Firstly, φ1 turns on which results in
charge sharing between C1 and C2 and hence C2 gets charged to
Vref
2
.
Figure 2: Proposed DAC structure
The incoming data stream is fed to the DAC with MSB facing first. If the current bit, d, is a 1, the charge which
is hold by C2 is transferred to the integrator. If the bit d is 0, then the capacitor C2 is discharged to ground. This
process continues until the LSB is reached. In each and every cycle, charge is transferred in quantities from the
"master" capacitor C1 to C2 and hence either integrated with output or discarded to ground in exact
correspondence with the bit under conversion. For an N-bit DAC, number of clock cycles required are N to
finish the conversion, hence is widely used as an important component in Successive Approximation ADC. At
the end of N cycles, the output is available at the output of op amp. All the switches are implemented by using
transmission gate.
Figure 3: Practical implementation of DAC
IV. Dac Design Specifications
Table 1: Various design parameters of DAC
Parameters Values
Technology Cadence UMC_180nm Technology
Supply voltage 1.8V
Power < 500𝛍𝐖
Resolution 8-bits
Sampling speed 5MS/s
V. Op-Amp For Dac
Out of various op amp architectures folded cascode op amp is best suited for switched capacitor
applications. So, folded cascode op amp is designed keeping in view the total power consumption of DAC is
less than 500μW. This power is distributed between op amp and switches, since folded cascode consume more
power than the other op amp configurations, hence power budget is divided as 400 μW plus 100 μW.
Circuit diagram of folded cascode op amp is shown in Figure 4. With the given power constraint of op amp, the
typical corner analysis of op amp gives power consumption of 306.5 μW. The op amp is made to run at all
process corners. Gain and phase plot of op amp is shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6 respectively. The designed op
amp meets all the desired specifications. Since resolution of DAC is 8-bit, hence the op amp should have
minimum gain of 54.18 dB. Theoretical gain of folded cascode op amp is given by:
Av ≈ gm1 + gmb 3 ro3 ro1 ∥ ro5 ∥ gm7 + gmb 7 ro7ro9 .

3. A Low Power, 8-Bit, 5MS/s Digital to Analog Converter for Successive Approximation ADC
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Figure 4: Folded Cascode op amp.
Designed op amp provides gain and phase of 62.61 dB and 82.7° respectively.
Figure 5: Gain plot of op amp.
VI. Switch For Dac
Given DAC uses transmission gate as a switch. The sampling speed of DAC is given by two factors:
the on-resistance of the switch and the value of the sampling capacitor.
Figure 6: Phase plot of op amp.
Thus, to achieve a high speed, a switch with large aspect ratio and a small capacitor must be used. The value of
Ron i.e. the on-resistance is given by
Ron = μnCox
W
L
(VDD − VTH )−1
. Plots of on-resistance of NMOS and PMOS device as a function of input
voltage is shown in Figure 7.

4. A Low Power, 8-Bit, 5MS/s Digital to Analog Converter for Successive Approximation ADC
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Figure. 7: On-resistance of (a) NMOS and (b) PMOS devices as a function of input voltage
In order to accommodate greater voltage swings in a sampling circuit, it is observed that a PMOS switch
exhibits an on-resistance that decreases as the input voltage becomes more positive [Figure 7(b)]. It is then
possible to employ “complementary” switches so as to allow rail-to-tail swings. Circuit implementation of
transmission gate is shown in Figure 8.
VII. Switch Designing
The product of the ON-resistance and the capacitive load of the transistor determine the bandwidth.
Using, the sampling frequency to be 5Ms/s, the values of R and C can be calculated and hence, the aspect ratio
of MOSFET.
(a) (b)
Figure 8: (a) Complementary switch, (b) on-resistance of complementary switch.
Transmission gates are used as a switch which encounters two main problems: clock feed-through and charge
injection. These problems are reduced to minimum by replacing capacitor C1 in Figure 2 by the circuit shown in
Figure 9. Now during φstart the reference voltage Vref is sampled as before. Again, the circuit looks the same
during phase φ1. However, in phase φ2 at which the voltage on C2 is being processed, the master capacitor C1 is
placed in the feedback loop of an op amp which forces the voltage across C1 to remain constant and maintain its
level. Any perturbations due to charge injection or charge loss from C1 are compensated by the op amp. As a
result of this, the charge corresponding to the reference voltage sampled across C1 at the beginning of the
conversion process can be hold more accurately. Output of DAC using this proposed method for reducing
charge leakage is shown in Figure 10. The DAC is designed for low power consumption. Present work on DAC
consumes the power in the order of milli-watts, but this DAC consumes very low power of 493.8 μW.
VIII. Performance Comparison
Table 2: Various performance parameters
[6] [7] [8] [9] This
work
Technolog
y
0.35
𝜇𝑚
0.5
𝜇𝑚
0.35
𝜇𝑚
0.35
𝜇𝑚
0.18 𝜇𝑚
Resolution 10 10 10 14 8
Conversion
speed
200
MS/s
400M
S/s
25MS
/s
5MS/
s
5MS/s
Input range - 0.5
𝑉𝑝𝑝
- - 0.6-1.3
Supply
voltage
3V 3.3V 3V 3V 1.8V
Power
consumptio
n
61m
W
90m
W
- 7mW 493.8
𝜇W
Gain 65d
B
- - 90dB 62.61dB
Load
capacitance
50pF 0.5pF 3.2pF - 2pF

5. A Low Power, 8-Bit, 5MS/s Digital to Analog Converter for Successive Approximation ADC
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IX. Conclusion
The DAC is designed for resolution of 8-bit.
Sampling speed is taken to be 5MS/s and power dissipation achieved is 493.8 μW. The output of DAC
converges to the final value without decreasing from its previous analog value. Simulation results shows that
DAC dissipates power of 493.8 μW and output of DAC increases for input‟1‟. The conversion starts from MSB
and the output voltage is obtained using a switched capacitor integrator.
Figure 9: Proposed circuit for reducing charge leakage.
Figure 10: DAC output for all bits „1‟.
Few of design issues that limit its performance have been discussed. Although no concern on linearity is
specifically addressed, various techniques can be used for its improvement also. Such enhancements as well as
the design of the improved DAC can be included in the future work. Since the designed DAC failed at SF corner
and FS corner because the output of DAC decreases even for “1” input. This problem may be due to charge
leakage through capacitor C1 , hence improved charge storage circuit need to be designed to extend this work in
future.
References
[1] L. Gallin-Martel, D. Dzahini, F. Rarbi, O. Rossetto “A low power 5 MS/s 14 bit switched capacitors” IEEE,2010
[2] R. E. Suarez, P. R. Gray, and D. Hodges, “All-MOS charge redistribution analogue-to-digital conversion techniques-Part 11,” IEEE J.
Solid-state Circuits, 1975, SCIO,
[3] pp. 319-385
[4] P. Rombouts and L. Weyten, “Linearity improvement for the switched-capacitor DAC,” IEEE Electronics Letters, vol. 32, no. 4,
pp.293-294, February 1996.
[5] U. K. Moon, G. C. Temes, and J. Steensgaard, “Digital Techniques for Improving the Accuracy of Data Converters,‟‟ IEEE
Communication Magazine, pp. 136-143, October 1999.
[6] Mezyad M. Amourah, Saqib Q. Malik and Randall L. Geiger “An MSB-First Monotonic Switched Capacitor Serial DAC” IEEE
Circuits and systems, 2002.